THAT GUY...WHO WAS IN THAT THING

I just watched a documentary about sixteen actors who you would probably recognize but not know their names. I was sorry not to see some women and a more diverse selection, but still found it at times compelling and always engaging because I was a less well recognized version of what this documentary is about. Just two weeks ago I was stopped by a family in my town who I thought I must know from my youngest's school or friends but it turned out they recognized me from a role I had many years ago on NYPD BLUE.

A lot of what these actors talk about in this movie I've experienced, even though in some ways they might be counted more "successful"—we all have gone through similar challenges and rewards and feelings.  The only "non-white" (whatever these racial classifications even mean any more) was in many ways the most open and his testimony to his experiences trying to get work evoked the most emotional response not just in me (I had more in common with his experiences than many of the others in terms of bad periods like taking the bus in L.A. for a year and a half) but in him.

If you are interested in good acting, or what it takes to stick with a creative art and the struggles it entails, or what familiar faces have to say about their lives and craft, or just like documentaries, you should enjoy this.  Right now it's only available on Showtime, but if you don't have that my guess is it will be on the web before too long. I found it well worth watching, and would love to see another on female "character actors"...